Hidden Neighborhoods: Wychwood Park

Despite living in Toronto for years, many residents do not know about the hidden neighborhood of Wychwood Park, between Davenport Road and St. Clair Avenue. Wychwood was founded by landscape painter Marmaduke Matthews in the late nineteenth century and intended to be an artists colony.

Professor/critic/theorist/urban activist Marshall McLuhan was a famous resident who lived at house No. 3. His home was an Edwardian mansion designed by Eden Smith, whose own was built on the same street. Most of the houses in the Wychwood Park are mansions or very large houses but that's not what makes the neighborhood special. The area feels like a historic, private community with gravel roads, wood gates, shared tennis court and scenic pond and woods. The community was amalgamated into Toronto in 1909, but the area is still run by the residents' executive council.

Have you ever been to Wychwood Park? Does your city have a similar hidden neighborhood?